Description

Regarding the refusal to issue a code compliance certificate for an 18-year-old house reclad with monolithic cladding at 8 Silkwood Grove, Totara Heights, Manukau

Scope

The application for this determination arises from the following:

• The house was constructed under a building consent issued in 1995 and was substantially completed in 1996; final inspections were not carried out until 1998. No code compliance certificate has been issued for the building work;
• The original monolithic cladding developed moisture ingress problems shortly after completion and investigations in 2003 identified cladding defects and recommended that the wall cladding be replaced with a system that incorporated a drained cavity;
• A new building consent was issued in 2004 to remove and replace the original cladding. That work was completed in early 2005 and the authority issued a code compliance certificate for the recladding consent in late 2006. The original building consent remained unresolved and the applicant purchased the house in 2013;
• The authority refused to issue a code compliance certificate for the original building consent because it is not satisfied that the building work complies with certain clauses of the Building Code (First Schedule, Building Regulations 1992), particularly in regard to weathertightness.

The matter to be determined is whether the authority was correct in its decision to refuse to issue a code compliance certificate for the original building consent. In deciding this matter, I have also taken into account the building work included in the 2004 recladding consent which now forms part of the external building envelope, insofar as it relates to the ongoing compliance of the building work carried out under the original building consent.

I have therefore considered whether the external building envelope of the house as it now exists complies with Clause B2 Durability and Clause E2 External Moisture of the Building Code. The building envelope includes the components of the systems (such as the monolithic cladding, the windows, the roofing, the parapets, the deck and the flashings), as well as the way the components have been installed and work together. Included in the matter is the other concern raised by the authority regarding Building Code Clause F4 Safety from falling.